COASTAL RAIL LINE TO BE SHUT DOWN FOR UPGRADES

San Diego County’s coastal rail line is scheduled to shut down this weekend for upgrades that promise to eventually speed travel times, transit officials said.

All freight and passenger service, including the Amtrak and Coaster trains, will stop by 1 a.m. Saturday and resume after 4:30 a.m. Monday, the North County Transit District said in a news release.

On a typical day, roughly 50 trains travel on the corridor from Oceanside to downtown San Diego.

The transit district, which manages the Coaster, recommends that passengers use its Route 101 Breeze buses, which travel from Oceanside to La Jolla. Schedules for those buses are at
gonctd.com and amtrak.com.

During the shutdown, crews in Sorrento Valley and Bay Park will install rail crossover equipment. That’s expected to allow Coaster trains to bypass freight vehicles in those areas, reducing passenger travel times, according to the San Diego Association of Governments, the region’s planning agency.

Crews will also complete rail maintenance in Oceanside, Carlsbad, Encinitas, Del Mar and San Diego, the transit district said.

This weekend’s work is a small part of the $820 million in improvements scheduled for the coastal rail line during the next 20 years. The larger project’s ultimate goal is to build a second rail track from Orange County to downtown San Diego.

Several sections of the second track are either complete or under construction. More information about that project is at
keepsandiegomoving.com/Lossan.